Sometimes I just look at people’s faces. You can see a lifetime of emotion a person’s eyes- in every wrinkle and between every line you see Love. Intrigue. Pain. As much as we listen to their stories, it’s all written on their faces. And although it seems the Red Cross has me staring into the eyes of tragedy so very often these days, I can see a glimmer of beautiful hope in their faces.
Graffiti art by Priest as seen at the corner of Conti and Washington Streets in LoDa | May 14, 2011
The Red Cross offers assistance after disasters like the tornado in Butler, and almost all of that assistance is provided through volunteer caseworkers deployed into affected communities. Above you see photos from Deer Park, Alabama. The same storm system that produced tornadoes in Butler also devastated Deer Park in south Washington County. As an AmeriCorps VISTA, it is my responsibility to recruit and train volunteers for the Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter. These volunteers, like Roger and Wanda Reetz, Pamela Schnitzler, and Brenda Bivens (all seen above) graciously give their time to serve in disaster-affected communities. It’s through Roger and Wanda Reetz that I’ve learned about disaster response.
Wednesday night I wrote a small story about what it means to be a VISTA (think of it as the domestic Peace Corps) with the Red Cross as part of an assignment given to me by AmeriCorps.
Last week, in the middle of tornado response, I spoke to a stroke support group at a local hospital. The topic was disaster preparedness. Soon, I’ll be speaking to a senior citizen group in Grand Bay, Alabama about the same. Tonight, as I write this story, I’m tuned to the news. A tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa and devastated the west side of Birmingham this evening. Our wonderful, but overworked, volunteers are already preparing to deploy northward.
On Thursday workers in Choctaw County, where in addition to the Butler tornado of two weeks ago, we now have 20 more damaged homes. The first of our chapter’s volunteers to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa deployed Friday and Saturday.
A year ago I was working for the Census. In August I quit my job with Books-A-Million to become a full-time volunteer with the American Red Cross, Alabama Gulf Coast Chapter. They brought me on as an AmeriCorps VISTA in January. The jobs I had over the last year are necessary. Someone’s got to do them. But…
With the Red Cross, you can be the best part of someone’s worst day.
And that sure as hell beats making coffee for a living.
I was in Denver, Colorado from April 12-15th for AmeriCorps Pre-Service Orientation (although I’d been in service at the Red Cross for over two months by then). Storms passed through Colorado and Oklahoma while I was in Denver, with a rush of wind fanning the flames of Texas wildfires the Friday I left to come home. As a result, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport experienced serious delays, and I missed my flight into Mobile. Getting home around 3:30 AM from New Orleans pales in comparison to what happened north of Mobile that day.
The following is the story Cennie Jackson (bottom right, in white) told me in Butler, Alabama the Monday after a tornado ripped down her street and destroyed her home (top left). View full post »
Last Sunday after church a few of us went down to an annual three-day arts festival, Arts Alive!, in Cathedral Square. I took this shot of a glass-worker at work.